Page 36 of Silent Schemes

Instead, I'm shattering into pieces, my trained composure completely destroyed.

When I finally break, it's with his name on my lips—not a performance, not a seduction technique, just raw truth.

After, as we both struggle to breathe, reality crashes back.

What have I done? This changes everything.

"Forty-eight hours," he reminds me, voice still rough. "Then you choose."

The weight of that choice feels heavier now, with his touch still burning on my skin.

CHAPTER FIVE

Varrick

Three days have passed and things have been… interesting.

She wakes then walks into my bedroom.

It’s night and we’re going to my club, The Black Serpent.

Her little cat nap almost made us late.

But here she is, left arm bandaged, right hand holding a straight razor she must have found in my shaving kit.

Stands there in the doorway, her shadow stretching all the way to my bed.

I don’t move.

Don’t reach for the gun under the pillow. “If you’re going to finish the job, at least wait until I’m hard,” I say.

Her face is a frozen lake.

Nothing moves on the surface, but I know what’s alive underneath.

She’s wearing one of my shirts… white, too big, sleeves rolled up.

Her shoulder is leaking through the bandage, a bloom of red that matches her eyes.

She looks at the razor, then at me. “I expect you got me some sort of clothes?”

I roll over, point to the closet. “You’ll find something to fit. Try not to bleed on the black suits. They’re one of a kind.”

She flicks her wrist and the razor vanishes.

I have no idea where she puts it.

That’s another reason why she’s dangerous.

I watch her change through the mirrored closet door.

She doesn’t care.

She picks a dress—black, tight, elegant, and slides it over bruises and half-healed cuts.

My bandage job is holding, but the pain is making her pale.

She straps on the holster, then stops, remembering I took her guns last night.